Page 55 - India

Xiaomi shuts financial services in India to focus on core business services

Xiaomi India said it will continue to bring the latest technology and innovation for all with "our products and services in the future"

Some Indians hail Elon Musk's Twitter takeover; others sound caution

With billionaire Elon Musk closing the deal to buy Twitter and firing the social media firm's four top executives, twitterati in India on Friday seemed divided with many who were vocal against content moderation on the platform hailing the development while others sounding a note of caution. Musk has completed his USD 44 billion (one billion=100 crore) takeover of Twitter and fired the social media company's four top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal and legal executive Vijaya Gadde, according to the New York Times. Musk singled out Gadde, 48, criticising her for her role in content moderation decisions at the company, the report said. "The bird is freed," Musk, 51, tweeted after closing the deal. Reacting to the development, filmmaker Ashoke Pandit tweeted, "While wickets are falling in Twitter after Elon Musk takes over Urban Naxals in India must be worried." Another filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri posted a picture of Gadde with Twitter's ex-CEO Jack Dorsey, holding a placard sa

Three students from India killed in road accident in Massachusetts

In a tragic incident, three students from India died in a road accident after the car they were travelling in collided with another vehicle in western Massachusetts. Prem Kumar Reddy Goda, 27, Pavani Gullapally 22 and Sai Narasimha Patamsetti 22, died on scene of the collision, Berkshire District Attorney's Office said in a statement on Thursday. Massachusetts state and local police are investigating the two-vehicle motor vehicle collision that killed the three students and hospitalised five other people. At approximately 5:30 am, a northbound car and a southbound vehicle collided. Four other occupants in the car 23-year-old Manoj Reddy Donda, 22-year-old Sridhar Reddy Chinthakunta, 23-year-old Vijith Reddy Gummala, and 22-year-old Hima Ishwarya Siddireddy, were transported to Berkshire Medical Center for treatment. Law enforcement authorities identified the occupants of the car as international college students, six studying at the University of New Haven and one at Sacred Heart .

Commonwealth Secretary General welcomes India's offer to share UPI tech

Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland has welcomed India's offer to share its path-breaking Unified Payments Interface (UPI) technology with other members of the Commonwealth of Nations, hailing the move as potentially transformational. UPI is an instant real-time payment system which facilitates inter-bank peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions. The transaction is done through mobile in easy steps. Besides, there are no charges applicable for the UPI transaction so far. Moreover, it has played a key role in the country making a transition to a cashless economy. The inexpensive medium for cashless transactions has been gaining traction month-on-month basis. Payment through UPI has crossed a milestone of Rs 11 lakh crore in September, as per the data released by National Payments Corporation of India. An offer was made by India at the Commonwealth Bank of Governors meeting on October 12. This generosity is very welcome, Scotland told PTI in an interview. India's willingness t

India can accelerate green investments to $12.1 trillion by 2050

India can accelerate green investments to USD 12.1 trillion by 2050 and reap a host of benefits, a consultancy firm said on Thursday. With the ongoing rate, India's net Green House Gas (GHG) emissions will rise to 11.8 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2070 from the 2.9 gigatons in 2019, Mckinsey & Co said in a report. However, India has the potential to create 287 gigatons of carbon space for the world if it accelerates its efforts to fight climate change, the report said, adding that this amounts to almost half of the global carbon budget for an even chance at limiting warming to 1.5 degree celsius. "India's decarbonisation will require an estimated USD 12.1 trillion (5.9 per cent of GDP) of green investments until 2050 for the 'accelerated' scenario," it said. India has committed to net zero emissions by 2070. As per earlier estimates, the shift to net zero by 2070 will require USD 10 trillion worth investments. Mckinsey said there are tailwinds which would be of help to

Shiprocket becomes first inter-city logistics provider to join ONDC network

Company will enable sellers to select delivery partners to ship products across India

India likely to see biggest jump in energy demand globally, says IEA

India is likely to see the world's biggest rise in energy demand this decade, with demand climbing 3 per cent annually due to urbanisation and industrialisation, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its World Energy Outlook released on Thursday. While the push for renewable energy will see it meeting as much as 60 per cent of the growth in demand for power, coal will continue to meet a third of overall energy demand by 2030 and another quarter will be met by oil. "India becomes the world's most populous country by 2025 and, combined with the twin forces of urbanisation and industrialisation, this underpins rapid growth in energy demand, which rises by more than 3 per cent per year in the Stated Policies Scenario (STEPS) from 2021 to 2030," IEA said. "It sees the largest increase in energy demand of any country." Even though India continues to make great strides with renewables deployment and efficiency policies, the sheer scale of its development means that the combined ...

Need for Indian model of localisation to achieve SDGs 2030: NITI Aayog V-C

NITI Aayog Vice-chairman Suman Bery emphasised the need for the Indian model of localisation to achieve Social Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 set by the United Nations. No poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation and affordable and clean energy are among the 17 SDGs. Bery said the Indian model of SDG localisation has four pillars: creating institutional ownership, establishing a robust review and monitoring system, developing capacities for integrating SDGs in planning and monitoring and promoting a "whole society approach". Speaking at the ninth Dr Verghese Kurien Memorial Oration at XLRI, Jamshedpur, he said, "In 2015, before the world became divided as it is now due to the Russia-Ukraine war, the world community came together to formulate a shared view of the future of our planet to make it a better place to live in." SDGs were formulated in 2015. Hailing students as the future leaders of India, he asked the

Satellite communications to play key role in India's tech ambitions: MoS IT

Satellite communications is emerging as an important part of India's ambitions to scale up quality internet access across the country, Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Thursday. For the digital economy and India's growing clout in global technology landscape, satellite communications holds significant relevance, the minister said speaking at India Space Congress 2022. "Our goal...is by 2025-26 to have 1.2 billion Indians have the ability to connect to the internet directly through their device, and...role of satellite communications and space segment is an inherent part of this," Chandrasekhar said. At times, wireless technology may have limitations and "satellite is clearly emerging as an important part of the blueprint of delivering quality internet to all citizens and enterprises of India," he said. Satellite and space, therefore, will be important in the overall mission to ensure delivery of internet and goal of connecting people to the digital ...

Facebook announces 2022 Community Accelerator participants in India

Four-month programme provides selected community leaders of Facebook groups with training, mentorship and funding

Turkey assisted Pakistan in setting up secret cyber-army against US, India

Turkey has secretly helped Pakistan in setting up a cyber-army camouflaged under the bilateral agreement which was used for domestic political goals as well as directed to attack the US and India

Working towards best FTA with 'economic superpower' India: UK's Greg Hands

Describing India as an "economic superpower", Britain said on Wednesday that it was working towards the "best" Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that is beneficial to both the countries. India and Britain launched negotiations for the FTA in January with an aim to conclude talks by Diwali but the deadline was missed due to a lack of consensus on issues. "We have already closed the majority of Chapters and look forward to the next round of talks shortly," Secretary of State for International Trade Greg Hands said while replying to a question from Nick Thomas-Symonds, Shadow international trade secretary. A "strong FTA can strengthen the economic links between UK and India, boosting the UK economy by more than 3 billion pounds by 2035, helping families and communities," he said. He said that the FTA can cut red tapes, make it cheaper for UK companies to sell into India's dynamic market , helping drive growth and support jobs across every nation and region. Greater access could help UK ...

India an important manufacturer of vaccines for world: White House

India is an important manufacturer of vaccines for the world, the White House said, acknowledging the crucial role the country played in supplying vaccines against COVID-19 globally. Because of its incredible manufacturing capacity, (India) has been a major exporter of vaccines, Dr Ashish Jha, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, told reporters at a news conference here on Tuesday. Responding to a question, Dr Jha said the QUAD partnership a strategic security dialogue between Australia, India, Japan and the US -- on coronavirus was important to the Joe Biden administration. I think India is an important manufacturer of vaccines for the world. I mean not just for India itself, this is a really important thing, he said at the White House news conference. Defending the Biden administration's decision to supply vaccines to the world, Dr Jha said the US will continue making them available for every low and several low- and middle-income countries. There are about 100 countri

Better for Indian policymakers to understand what makes oil prices move

India imports more than 85% of its crude, half of its gas, and 60% of the cooking fuel, and any uptick in rates reduces the purchasing power of Indian households, something that is called inflation

Continental power grid spanning Japan to India inches closer to reality

Plans for a web of sub-sea cables that would create a continental power grid spanning Japan to India are rapidly becoming cheaper and more feasible

Flipkart to raise up to $3 bn to expand product range in India: Report

Walmart Inc-backed Flipkart is considering raising $2 billion to $3 billion at a valuation of more than $40 billion to expand its product range in India

Hopes for India-UK FTA talks impetus with new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak

As Rishi Sunak takes over as Britain's first Indian-origin Prime Minister on Tuesday, there is renewed hope that the India-UK free trade agreement (FTA) will get a much-needed impetus after the Diwali deadline for draft completion was missed amid political turmoil in the UK. While the October timeline was set by former prime minister Boris Johnson during his India visit in April, Sunak is on the record expressing his commitment to an FTA with India while Chancellor of the Exchequer at No. 11 Downing Street. He has flagged financial services as a particularly exciting aspect of the bilateral trade relationship and pointed to enormous opportunity for both countries in fintech and the insurance sector. I'm very supportive of India playing an increasingly influential role in the region, and indeed, in the world as a massive economy and the world's largest democracy and an FTA would prove a greater champion of that cause, Sunak told reporters back in July. Financial service is an area ..

No military or armed solution to Libya's issues, says India at UNSC

India on Monday at the UNSC meeting on Libya said there is no military or armed solution to Libya's issues and this point needs to be emphasized by the international community

Indian envoy meets Kenyan President Ruto over abduction of 2 Indians

India on Monday described as "very disturbing" the circumstances surrounding the abduction of two Indians in Kenya and subsequent lack of information in the case. Indian High Commissioner to Kenya, Namgya Khampa, met Kenyan President William Samoei Ruto and requested him for expediting the investigation into the matter, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. A close aide of the Kenyan President last week claimed the two missing Indians, Mohammad Zaid Sami Kidwai and Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan, have been killed by the disbanded DCI (Directorate of Criminal Investigations) unit, according to a media report. It is learnt that the Kenyan government has not said anything officially on the report. Kidwai and Khan, who were part of the Kenya Kwanza digital campaign team, went missing alongside taxi driver Nicodemus Mwania from Mombasa Road in July. "We have been in regular touch with the Kenyan government to locate the whereabouts of the two missing Indian nationals, Mohammad Zaid Sami Ki

Elizabeth Jones is Charg d'Affaires ad interim at US Embassy in Delhi

: The Biden administration has appointed senior foreign service officer Elizabeth Jones the Charg d'Affaires ad interim at the US Embassy in New Delhi, an official announcement said. Jones, who was the coordinator for Afghan relocation efforts recently, will depart to New Delhi soon, the State Department said in an announcement on Monday. Jones has earlier served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, acting Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East and Ambassador to Kazakhstan. She carries the highest foreign service rank of Career Ambassador. In India, Ambassador Jones will join our Embassy and Consulate interagency teams in advancing and expanding the partnership between our governments and people, a partnership that Secretary Blinken has called one of the most consequential in the world, the Department of State said.